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A Mother's Day Card
Monday May 12, 2003
Mother's Day, according to historian Jone Johnson Lewis in an article on the About.com website, has been a tradition in Western civilization. The ancient Greeks honored Rhea, the Mother of Gods; the Romans chipped in by honoring their version, Cybele; the Celts honored St. Brigid; and the British, starting in the 1600's, instituted the concept of "Mothering Day" which was the day when servants were given the day off to visit their mothers. That tradition lasted for nearly two centuries.
In the US, the first organized effort to have a day for moms was in 1858 in West Virginia. It was not, as you might suspect, started by Robert C. Byrd, but by Anna Reeves Jarvis who started it as a day to help improve sanitary conditions. After the Civil War, she promoted it as a day to help reconcile the parties.
The modern US concept of Mother's Day was first championed by Julia Ward Howe, who wrote the lyrics to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." During the Franco-Prussian and Civil Wars she became a serious advocate for peace. In 1872, Howe began promoting a "Mother's Day for Peace" which lasted for about 30 years.
In 1908 Philadelphia merchant, John Wanamaker, joined the effort to have a day dedicated to celebrating motherhood, following the lead of Anna Jarvis (daughter of Anna Reeves Jarvis). In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson signed a joint resolution which had been adopted by the House and the Senate for an official "Mother's Day."
All that to lay the groundwork for noting that yesterday was the 27th time The Mullings Director of Standards & Practices has celebrated Mother's Day. The Lad is responsible for the start of the calculation.
By the grace of God, both of our mothers are still with us even though the wear and tear of eight decades is beginning to show.
While our generation likes to believe the world is so much more dangerous than it was in our moms' era, it is not. The world is different, what with AIDS, and SARS and other, yet-to-be-named all-capitalized diseases, but both of our mothers dealt with the scourge of their age: Polio. (My brother and her uncle both contracted polio as boys.)
They have also dealt with a Depression, uncountable wars, the death of their spouses, and watching the ups and downs of their children - and their children's children - wending their way through the world.
For her part, the MD of S&P has been, not just at my side as we've negotiated the twists and turns of our lives; for most of the time she has led the way.
It was she who cared for a very young Lad while I was campaigning in Iowa and Indiana and other states which
begin and end with vowels. She had to bundle The Lad off to the doctor or the emergency room with the earaches,
croupy coughs, and a broken collarbone. She was the one who sat in cath lab waiting rooms, worrying over me during
the many angioplasty procedures, culminating in her overseeing my recovery after that pesky open heart surgery. A few weeks ago, it was she who scolded me for going to Toronto when it was far less than absolutely necessary.
She has done all this while paying the bills, keeping the house in repair and our lives in order; and, in her spare time, building a successful career of her own.
The Mullings Director of Standards & Practices has a story which will sound familiar to many, because it is a story about mothers which has been repeated hundreds of millions of times since the days when Rhea was honored by the Greeks. It sounds familiar because they have each been, in their own way, worthy of the title, "Goddess."
To my personal goddess: Thank you for The Lad. Thank you for everything. Happy Mother's Day, Susan.
On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Bios of the Greek and Roman goddesses; a link to the history of Mothers' Day; a pretty funny Mullfoto and a good Catchy Caption of the Day.
--END --
Copyright © 2003 Richard A. Galen
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